Welcome to the Editors Nova Scotia twig of Editors Canada!

Editors Nova Scotia

Contact Information

2018-19 Coordinators:

Interested in Editors Nova Scotia news?

You can find out more about Editors Nova Scotia events—past and present, and with photos to boot—by visiting our website. If you would like to hear about events by email, please email us at NovaScotia.Twig@editors.ca with the instruction, “Please add me to your email list.”

Past Meetings & Events

Time to Freshen Up Your Skills?

Microsoft Word provides powerful tools for creating and managing text styles. Many people think of styles mainly in connection with document design and layout, but even in the manuscript stage, styles are an important part of a clean, stable document and efficient workflows. This workshop will demonstrate how to take control of a document’s appearance and structure while saving time for you and for colleagues.

Workshop participants will learn how to think strategically about styles and plan their use; how to create, modify, and apply styles; how to manage styles using the Organizer; and how to store and document style systems using templates.

Templates

Word templates are powerful toolkits and one of Word’s most underutilized features. The well-known, ready-made layouts represent just one small facet of template use. This workshop will explore their potential to contribute at every stage of document development, from concept through writing, editing, and layout.

Workshop participants will practise using a range of template elements, learning how to create, revise, and apply templates; how to find and back up template files; how to populate a template with styles, autotext entries, custom toolbars, and time-saving scripts; and how to manage templates using the Organizer.

You are encouraged to bring a laptop computer with a version of Word (notes will also be provided).

Note: Participants should already be familiar with Microsoft Word’s basic functions related to the formatting of pages, margins, paragraphs, and fonts. Martha will be demonstrating on an Apple computer using Word for Mac 2011. PC and Word version equivalences will be searched for collectively in class.

Martha Hickman Hild is a freelance writer and editor based in Cambridge, Nova Scotia. Her career in publishing spans the whole transition from conventional paste-up through the advent of desktop computing to the complex digital workflows of today. Following an earlier career in academia, she worked as a technical writer, then in educational publishing and in the news industry before returning to university as a research administrator. She is the author of two field guides for amateur geologists.

Editors Canada Conference Confab and Halifax Summer Social

We're trying something new: Some professional development along with our social event! Join us on Saturday, July 15, 2017, for either event or both.

Conference Confab

Six of us from the twig attended this year's conference in Ottawa–Gatineau and had a great time. We thought we'd share a bit with you. Each of us will talk for a few minutes on a session that we particularly enjoyed or the conference in general for a total of an hour. We will be live at the Halifax Public Library and running a Zoom meeting from there.

You may join us either in person or online. Members free; non-members $5.

(For those of you joining by Zoom, I'll walk you through the procedure.)

Halifax Summer Social

It's that time again … time to join us to chat about editing, work, life, summer, and all the rest. Join us for the Conference Confab beforehand, or if that doesn't suit, join us just for the social.

We'll be finishing up with the meeting at around 6 p.m. and heading to a restaurant somewhere near the Halifax Public Library. As usual, Editors Nova Scotia will be footing the bill for a few appetizers; you're on the hook for your own drinks and dinner. Come on out to chat!

Editors Nova Scotia Annual General Meeting

Saturday, May 6, 2017, 4:30 p.m.
Halifax Central Library

Come on out and we'll have a brief meeting to address any concerns, hear your suggestions on what you'd like to see from Editors Nova Scotia, talk about upcoming planned events, and then go for dinner nearby.

Editors Nova Scotia will pay for some snacks, but you're on your own for drinks and dinner!

NEW!

Door prize draw for those who RSVP and attend. The earlier you respond, the more tickets you get toward the door prize.

This seminar is a hands-on workshop in which you'll edit actual short manuscripts; the instructor will review the edits in detail with the group, discussing the reasoning behind various edits, alternative choices, and techniques. Throughout the day, you'll work on several different types of documents, practise using key resources such as dictionaries and style guides, create and follow style sheets, write queries to the author, and discuss the merits of specific editing choices with fellow attendees and the instructor.

The session will also include a review of some key copy editing guidelines, advice on finding information as you edit, and plenty of pro tips.

You are encouraged to bring

a laptop computer with word-processing software (paper copies of manuscripts will also be provided) and

copies of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition, and Editing Canadian English, 3rd edition, if you have them.

Note: This session is not intended for beginners. Attendees should have a grasp of copy editing basics, including creating style sheets and writing author queries. The recommended minimum experience is any ONE of the following:

a year of freelance copy editing experience with skill building through copy editing seminars, webinars, and/or self study

six months of copy editing under the supervision of an experienced editor

a recognized copy editing course (online or in person)

Elizabeth d'Anjou teaches copy editing and grammar at Ryerson University and has developed teaching materials for numerous copy editing courses and workshops, both online and in class. She is a freelancer with more than 20 years of experience editing for a diverse clientele, from textbook publishers to corporations to non-profit agencies and government departments. Elizabeth is a past chair of Editors Toronto and is currently the director of standards for Editors Canada.

Halifax Spring Social

Come join us for a Halifax Spring Social—an evening get-together in Dartmouth! Have a drink or two while we talk editing and all manner of other things. Editors Nova Scotia will provide some nibblies.

Elizabeth d'Anjou will be joining us, so come on out, all you editors—newbies especially. Elizabeth d'Anjou is giving a full-day, hands-on workshop that day. We will have been working hard all day and will need the evening to relax and laugh about our mistakes of the day! Join us for the social whether you come to the workshop or not.

We will be gathering on Wednesday, April 12, 2017, at the Wooden Monkey, Dartmouth Ferry Terminal, from 5 pm on.

Wolfville Editors Bunch

The Wolfville Editors Bunch will meet on Wednesday, March 8 at McGill’s, 18 Kentucky Court, New Minas. 12:30, as usual. We will be in the Cellar Room.

To get there, take Exit 12 off Highway 101, turn right/north. At the stop light, turn left toward Kentville, and then take the second left onto Kentucky Court. McGill’s is on your right just past FYI Doctors. . See map at http://mcgillsrestaurant.com/contact-us/

If you have dietary restrictions, please contact the restaurant at 902 681 3325 on March 7 to discuss menu possibilities with the chef.

Halifax Winter Social

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays is over, let’s get together over beverages to talk and laugh (or whine) about editing or weather or whatever! Editors Nova Scotia will provide some nibblies.

Some of us will be coming from the Wolfville area, but none from far, far away, so come on out, you HRM folk—newbies welcome—for this Halifax Winter Social.

Weather permitting, we will be gathering on Friday, January 27, 2017, in the evening, from 6 pm on.

Editors’ Lunch and Chat
Port Williams, Nova Scotia

The Wolfville Editors Bunch will meet on Monday, January 9, at the Noodle Guy at 964 Highway 358, Port Williams. 12:30, as usual.

The weather forecast calls for flurries that day. Cross your fingers.

To get to the Noodle Guy, take Exit 11 off Highway 101, turn right/north. At the stop light, continue straight on, down over the hill and over the marsh, and check how high the tide is in the Cornwallis River as you cross the bridge. The Noodle Guy is in the first building on the right on the other side of the bridge.

Grammar Boot CampDartmouth, Nova Scotia

Want to flex your grammar (and punctuation and usage) muscles? This intensive seminar will put you through the paces. Focusing on high-level errors—the ones that make it past editors and proofreaders and into print—this session will help you identify and fix the most puzzling mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and usage. We'll look at errors from a range of publications, discuss up-to-date approaches to eliminating them, and run through a series of challenging editing exercises. Feel free to bring in any difficult examples you've encountered on the job.
Editor-writer Frances Peck (CPE Hon.) is a partner in the BC firm West Coast Editorial Associates. A long-time member and volunteer with Editors Canada, she teaches editing at Douglas College and the University of British Columbia, and gives workshops across Canada. She's a co-author of the HyperGrammar website and author of Peck's English Pointers.

Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia (ATINS) is also hosting a seminar by Frances Peck. This seminar (Clear and Concise: Guidelines for Style) will be held at the same place, Dartmouth Sportsplex, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. Registration for this event is through ATINS. Please email ATINS at info@atins.org to register for the Clear and Concise workshop. A discount will be available for Editors Canada members.

Clear and Concise: Guidelines for Style

Clear, concise style is the backbone of strong writing. It’s also the result of cold, hard revision.

This seminar presents a variety of stylistic techniques to help language do its job. We’ll look at how to create flow, eliminate sloppy shifts and inconsistencies, link ideas using parallelism and subordination, tighten sentence structure, and trim wordiness. Through discussion, examples, and exercises, we’ll examine surefire methods for polishing any type of document.

Diane Macgregor follows up her 2013 seminar on plain language with a full-day, hands-on session. After a (re)introduction to plain language principles, you will work on content provided by local not-for-profit organizations. (But please bring your own content if you wish.) Diane will take you through the process of rethinking from the reader’s point of view: How much do your readers know about the subject? How well do they read? How interested are they in your topic? Why will they read this piece? Under what circumstances will they read it? What must they be able to do next? You will use the answers to these questions to match content, approach, level of detail, and level of language. By the end of the day, you will have practised and polished your plain language editing and communication skills—and you will have helped out your community.

Diane Macgregor, Editorial Consultant with the Nova Scotia Department of Communications, started in plain language in the 1980s, working on Alberta’s five-year plan to improve government communications. Projects included working with the real estate industry to improve contracts used with homebuyers and with the Alberta Law Reform Institute to demonstrate plain language techniques to the legal community. For the past 14 years, she has been a plain language editor/content designer with Communications Nova Scotia, helping a variety of government specialists reach their target audiences. She has been involved with Plain Language Association International from its earliest days, and her definition of plain language is included in Michèle M. Asprey's Plain Language for Lawyers, 3rd edition (Federation Press, Australia): “words and design working together to create clear communication.”